


Perennial Pleasures

by Batsutousai



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: Edward Elric Swears, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other, Tentacle Rape, The Author Regrets Nothing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 02:44:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8872648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Batsutousai/pseuds/Batsutousai
Summary: Activating a mystery array may finally be the thing to bridge the gap that years apart had left between Roy and Edward.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anotherFMAfan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anotherFMAfan/gifts).



> For the [December Days of Yore](http://celebrate-fma.livejournal.com/17639.html) event on LJ. In the chat, while talking about the event, Fanny had a copy&paste boo-boo and we ended up talking about tentacles, which, inevitably, got me thinking about doing a winter-themed piece involving tentacle sex.  
> I regret _nothing_. XD
> 
> I wasn't originally intending to make this '03 verse – I usually default to _Brotherhood_ /manga verse – but that's what the muse demanded, so here you go. How Ed and Al got back from our world, I don't know. *shrugs and waves hands in a magical, mysterious way* Just go with it.
> 
>  
> 
> You can also read this at [tumblr](http://batshieroglyphics.tumblr.com/post/154567804679) or [LiveJournal](http://batsutousai.livejournal.com/375722.html).

When Roy opened his door in response to the knock, he both was and wasn't surprised to see who was waiting on the other side. On one hand, he _had_ been the one to ring asking for Edward's help. On the other hand, the winter solstice was tomorrow, and there were reports of a blizzard going through East City and the surrounding area; he honestly hadn't expected his former subordinate to rush to Central to help him the day after his call. 

"It could have waited another couple days, Fullmetal," he remarked, even as he stepped back to let Edward in. The sun had been down more than long enough for the temperatures to have dropped low enough that Roy wasn't much enjoying standing in the doorway; he suspected that Edward would be even more desperate to be out of the cold. 

Indeed, Edward brushed past him and stomped right into the living room to stand in front of the lit fireplace without a word of greeting, tracking melting snow and gods knew what else across Roy's floors. 

Roy sighed and closed the door, torn between irritation and gratitude that some things never changed. 

"It's awkward at home," Edward said when Roy entered the living room, not looking away from the fireplace. "Feel like a fucking third wheel, watching Winry and Al dance around each other. If I had to listen to _one more_ back and forth debate about what sort of pie the other would prefer, I'm gonna to scream." 

"You could just lock them in a cupboard together," Roy suggested as he stopped behind his couch and pressed his hands into the plush back. (He told himself he was keeping the furniture between them in case Edward pulled off one of his infamous explosions, though he knew that was far from the truth; Alphonse and Miss Rockbell weren't the only ones who could use a couple hours trapped in a cupboard together, though he sincerely doubted he and Edward would make it out the other end so happily.) 

Edward cast a rather impressive deadpan stare over his shoulder at Roy. "How would that help me at all?" 

Roy shrugged. "They'd spend more time snogging in–"

"Fuck you, shut up," Edward snapped, even as he covered his ears with his hands, his sleeves falling back just enough to reveal the shine of automail on one side and a hint of sun-kissed skin on the other. "That's my _baby brother_ , you gross old man." 

Roy sighed and, since Edward was looking right at him still, made a show of rolling his eye. "I'm hardly going to start _imagining_ such, Fullmetal. Besides which, your brother is sixteen and plenty capable of developing crushes and dating the object of his affection, should such be returned." 

Edward dropped his hands from his ears and scowled. "Why is it that fucking _everything_ that comes out of your mouth sounds like pompous bullshit?" 

"I can't help how uncultured you are." 

" _I'm_ uncultured?" Edward demanded, pointing at himself and letting out a loud snort. "Fuck you. I've studied cultures you've never even _heard_ of." 

It was a struggle to keep his expression bland, because Roy hated the reminder of the years when Edward was the absent ghost haunting both his waking and sleeping moments. "I'm not certain wartime cultures in alternate worlds count." 

Edward was the one to make a show of rolling his eyes, that time, and Roy was trying so hard to keep a grimace in check, he almost let slip a smile. "Whatever. Where's this array you can't figure out?" 

Roy cleared his throat and turned away. "I'll get it," he offered, and left the living room for the study, where he'd left the array in question after yet _another_ attempt to decode it had ended in failure and finally had him resorting to ringing Edward. 

He scowled down at the piece of paper the array was sketched on as he picked it up, because he'd been staring at it for over half a week without any hope of figuring out what it was for, beyond that it had something to do with plants. Which, given, was purportedly more than any of the officers who'd had a crack at it before him had been able to figure out, and the woman who'd created it had been killed in the process of being arrested for her list of crimes, which meant no one had been able to torture it out of her. There was a plant-based alchemist employed by the military, but Roy would get major points for decoding the array before the new year, and he needed those points far too much to bring in another state alchemist. 

Edward, he knew, had some familiarity with plant-based alchemy, and he was just generally a genius when it came to all alchemic disciplines; even if he'd returned to the military, Roy would have gone to him before some unfamiliar state alchemist, so it had seemed sensible to ring Rockbell Automail and ask for his help, rather than continuing to stare at it uselessly for the rest of the holiday. 

"You could have just shown me where it was," Edward commented as Roy returned to the living room. While he'd been gone, the young man had removed his heavy brown overcoat, revealing a distressingly-handsome waistcoat and trousers combo, the top two buttons of his shirt undone to show a tempting vee of pale skin. 

Roy cleared his throat and leant over the back of the couch to hold out the array. "I have no interest in cleaning up after you any more than I must," he managed in a mostly even voice, once Edward had taken the paper. 

Edward snorted, but didn't start an argument, already distracted by the array. 

It was hardly the first time Roy had seen Edward since his return, or even the first time he'd seen him in a suit, but it _was_ the first time he'd seen his former subordinate without an audience, which meant he could finally _look_. So he took the rare quiet moment to observe Edward, taking in the glow of firelight playing along the warm hue of his skin and setting his hair shining as brightly as any dragon's hoard; the perfect cut of his suit, accentuating his fighter's build without revealing the sharp edges of his automail; and how sharply intent his gaze turned when he was distracted by something interesting. 

Edward was still as beautiful as he'd been during his brief return four years before, when Roy's (admittedly) creepy obsession had turned into a crush doomed to end in heartbreak. Just as on that impossible flying ship, he wanted to pull Edward into his arms and kiss him until he stopped trying to brain him, gave in to the inevitable draw that had originally pulled them into each other's orbit. 

But he couldn't, _wouldn't_ ; he was fourteen years Edward's senior, and his former commanding officer – practically his guardian – besides. Doubtless, the moment Edward got even a _hint_ of an idea about the things Roy wanted to do to him, he'd beat him bloody, and Roy wouldn't never hear from him again. That was the _last_ thing Roy wanted; better to watch from a distance, than not be allowed to watch at all, in his experience. 

"It's got a dependant clause," Edward said, breaking Roy from his observations. He smacked his free hand against the paper with the array as he looked up and met Roy's eye, golden orbs nearly _glowing_ with excitement. "There's another part to the array." 

Roy frowned, looking down at where his hands were curled around the back of the couch, so he could think without being distracted. "There weren't any other arrays found which weren't able to be activated on their own," he said after a quick mental inventory of the objects that had been catalogued with the array. 

"I don't think it's an array," Edward replied, and when Roy chanced a glance up at him, he found Edward'd tilted his head to one side and was staring at the array again, part of his bangs splayed elegantly across the side of his face, reaching toward the corner of his mouth the same way Roy wanted to. "More like a particular object. A plant." 

Roy felt like he should be more surprised by that, but he kind of wasn't. "The alchemist who created it did have a rather impressive array of plants spread throughout her home, though I'm not completely certain they'll still be alive, as long as her home has been locked up." 

Edward flashed him a sharp smile and wiggled the fingers of one gloved hand at him. "Locks I can handle; how far is this alchemist's place?" 

Roy snorted, somehow unsurprised by Edward's willingness to break a few laws in the quest to solve a puzzle. "I do actually have a key to the house," he commented, and Edward made a show of slumping, his eyes gleaming with humour. Roy turned away to hide his smile. "It's about three blocks north; I wouldn't mind getting this sorted out tonight, if you want to try to catch the last train east." 

Edward made a disgusted noise. "Appreciate the sentiment, but they're shutting down the East City line in case the blizzard takes out the tracks; I caught the last train to get up here." 

Roy couldn't quite keep himself from looking back with an uncertain frown. "You're spending the night of the solstice in a hotel? Alone?" That sounded wretched. Not quite so bad as spending the longest night in the frozen wastes of the north, without another soul in sight, or holed up in the dry heat of Ishbal, listening to gunshots throughout the night, but it certainly ranked up there. 

Edward shrugged, expression gone shuttered. "It's hardly the first time," he said flatly. 

Roy's chest ached at the reminder that he hadn't been the only one who'd spent two years alone. But, where his isolation had been by choice, Edward's _hadn't_. He'd simply been thrown into a strange world with strange customs, completely alone. 

"I'm sure," he offered quietly, "that Gracia and Elicia would be happy to have you over." 

Edward's expression twisted with a familiar mix of grief and shame; Roy hadn't expected to see his own emotions in regards to his best friend's family written so plainly across the face of another, but he couldn't say he was particularly surprised to see them on Edward. "I know enough people in Central; if I feel the need to light a few candles, I'm sure I'll find someone with a spare." 

"Of course," Roy agreed, turning away and biting back the brief urge to offer Edward celebrate with _him_ , because no way that would end well. "Let me change into something a little more sensible for an excursion across town." 

"You said _three blocks_ , old man!" Edward called after him, followed by a laugh that sounded, to Roy, a little hollow. 

Roy snorted in response, refusing to rise to the baiting, and quickly made his way up to his bedroom and changed into something a bit more appropriate for going out into the chill. 

Edward was waiting in the entryway when Roy got back downstairs, wrapped up tightly in his coat. "I banked the fire," he offered before Roy could look into the living room and use alchemy to do so himself. 

"Thank you," he offered, and was nearly certain Edward had offered a small smile in return. 

Roy grabbed the extra key he'd need from his study, then quickly bundled up and led the way out. Edward followed him silently, huddled in on himself a bit, and Roy set as quick a pace as they could safely manage over the light dusting of snow hiding gods knew what, because he didn't much care to be out in the chill any longer than necessary, himself. 

The deceased alchemist had lived in a polite little townhouse, and Roy ducked past the signs warning people to keep out by order of the Führer without really seeing them, knew Edward was probably doing the same behind him. 

"So," Edward said as they stepped into the chilled house, "how many other people have stared at this array before you?" 

Roy snorted. "Most, if not all, of the people above me in Central." 

Edward whistled. "Damn. And none of those idiots thought to take it to an alchemist?" 

Roy shrugged. "Most of them don't count a state alchemist among their subordinates, and they wouldn't dare to share the credit with someone else. If any of them _did_ think to consult an alchemist who was talented enough to figure out that it was either plant-based or that there was a specific component necessary, they didn't share that in their report when they passed it on." 

"You know," Edward said in such a dry tone, Roy caught himself wanting to smile before the other had even finished speaking, "I almost miss military one-upmanship bullshit, some days." 

Roy raised an eyebrow at him. "No, you don't," he returned. 

Edward's grin was about eight parts barely contained mayhem, two parts brilliant delight. "Where's this lady's study? Plant's probably in there." 

"It's down the hall, through the last door on the right. If you want to go ahead, I'll see about lighting a fire in the grate, see if we can't warm this place up a bit." 

"Knew I brought you for a reason," Edward said in such a bright, cheerful tone, Roy felt the urge to throttle him. 

It was always good to know that his crush hadn't left him willing to forgive _every_ one of Edward's attempts to nettle him. 

Edward left for the study while Roy set about finding the severely depleted wood pile in the little shelter in the back garden, then lighting them a fire in the living room. A bit of alchemy saw the heat spreading through the house a little faster than it would have otherwise, and when Roy finally joined Edward in the study, he was gifted with a wide, grateful smile. 

"Any luck?" he asked in an attempt to hide the way his heart has just done a hopeful little flip. 

Edward's expression fell and he shook his head. "Not yet. Touching the array to the plants doesn't seem to be working, and I'm not sure if it's because they're all dead, or if the correct plant just isn't here." 

Roy looked a bit helplessly over what had very likely once been a lovely little indoor garden or miniature forest. (Something like that; Roy had never really understood the urge to keep plants.) "There are other plants in the house," he offered, because he'd seen a line of small ones in the kitchen window, when he'd been collecting wood, and there had been a couple in the living room, in opposing corners. 

Edward sighed and nodded. "It's worth a shot, I guess. I mean, keeping the plant this array is meant to activate in a room other than her lab seems a bit odd, in terms of working with it, but it almost makes sense, in terms of keeping her work secret." 

"That's true; perhaps she has some additional research hidden away somewhere and this is the only way to get to it," Roy agreed, cheering up a bit at the thought. 

"Uh-huh." Edward cast him a knowing look on his way out of the study. "How much would finding a hidden cache of research jump you up the ladder?" 

"Oh, it should be worth at least one promotion, assuming Hakuro isn't feeling too threatened by my existence that day." 

Edward's laughter echoed through the hallway, filling the emptiness of the abandoned house the same way it seemed to fill up the hollow space in Roy's chest, and he scowled at himself as he followed his former subordinate. 

None of the plants on the ground floor caused the array to react, so they made their way upstairs, going systematically through every room and hunting down every last pot of dirt. 

"If we don't find it in here," Edward commented as they stepped into what appeared to have been the bedroom, "you may just be out of luck." 

"I'll still have discovered more than anyone else," Roy replied with a shrug. "I can get a nice jab in at everyone above me for taking so long that the plant we needed had died." 

Edward laughed again, shooting Roy a bright-eyed, delighted look that caused his heart to do some entirely unacceptable acrobatics in his chest. "Shit, that sounds like what I always used to do as a kid. 'It's not _my_ fault the building collapsed! If the fucker I was chasing had just stayed in the street, I wouldn't have needed to destroy the support pillars!' "

Roy snorted. "The difference, Fullmetal," he said in as dry as voice as he could, "is that where _you_ could have just been more sensible–"

"I was _twelve_ , you dick! It's not like _you_ were 'sensible'– Whoa!" 

Roy didn't have to ask after the surprised exclamation, because the bright flash of alchemy activating had been plenty obvious in the darkened room, neither of them having bothered to actually turn on the overhead light, with the light in the hallway casting plenty of light to see all the plants in the room. 

There came the sound of something 'sssh'ing along hardwood floorboards, followed by Edward shouting, "Fucking put me do–guh!" 

Roy fumbled for the light switch, and the bright light that flooded the room revealed a scene straight out of someone's freakiest dreams: Edward was caught up in curling branches, his limbs separated and held well off the ground, while some of the branches appeared intent on finding ways under his clothing. One branch had wrapped around his head a couple of times, covering his mouth and explaining why he wasn't shouting any more. 

Edward's eyes met his, staring desperately out of a face flushed bright red, and he managed to wave one hand at Roy before his whole body jerked in the branches' hold, a broken moan slipping out from behind the gag. 

Roy's cock twitched in interest, but he ignored it in favour of yanking on one of the gloves he'd taken off as the house had warmed, then snapping his fingers to set the plant alight as close to the pot as he could manage, hoping to cut it off at the source and leave the rest to fall dead. 

The plant flinched in response to the fire – Edward let out a whimper – but didn't stop moving. On the contrary, a number of new branches raced toward Roy, and the desperate snap he got off before they reached him, did little more than charring a bit of bark. 

The branches wrapped around him, catching his arms and legs and pulling them apart, so he was spread eagle above the ground; the same position as Edward. One branch wrapped firmly around and between the fingers of his right hand, keeping him from snapping again. "Let me–" he managed to get out before the end of one thick branch was shoved into his mouth, pushing down against his tongue and stopping just shy of setting off his gag reflex. 

More branches were making their way under his clothing, sliding up under his shirt to caress his chest, or slipping past the waist of his trousers and under his pants to curl around his cock. The latter didn't feel rough, unlike the rest of the branches moving against his skin, and Roy had about half a second to be surprised by that, before it started rhythmically squeezing his cock, and most of his common sense fled straight down to his lower body with his brain. (Edward's moans and whimpers may have assisted in speeding up his surrender, though he would never admit as much to anyone.) 

Another branch – vine? It felt smooth, like the one pleasuring his cock – slipped under the back of his trousers and pants to probe at his anus, and Roy had just about enough sense left to try fighting his way out again, because no _way_ he was going to be buggered by a _plant_.

But the branches had him tight and wouldn't be shaken off, and he eventually slumped in their grasp, giving in to the inevitable and trying to relax as much as he could so it would hurt less. 

The vine at his anus had stilled while he'd been struggling, but once he gave in, it curled forward a bit more, carefully pressing against his opening. It held there for a beat, and then something slick splattered against his skin. Roy couldn't keep from making a disbelieving noise because this plant had _lube_?!

Gods help them, they'd activated a plant bred for having sex with humans, hadn't they? How perverted could one alchemist _get_?

He didn't bother thinking on that for very long, easily distracted by the rough slither of bark between the burn scars on his back and chest, the rhythmic squeezing of the vine around his cock, the careful stretch of his anus, and the broken noises Edward was letting out. 

Not really thinking about what he was doing, Roy stretched his free hand in Edward's direction. To his surprise, another flesh hand met his, and it didn't take a genius to know who it belonged to. He tried to turn his head to look, but the branch keeping him silent was also keeping his head from turning, so all he could see was the ceiling above them. 

Edward made a noise that could have been Roy's given name as the fingers of the other hand threaded between his, and Roy squeezed his eyes shut and threw caution to the wind, gripping tight to Edward's hand and moaning out a muffled, "Edward." 

It was, quite possibly, the _weirdest_ sexual encounter of his life, and Roy wondered, as he was lowered to the bed after coming, how much alcohol he was going to need to forget it had happened. A lot, probably; he had a worryingly high tolerance. 

"So," Edward said from next to Roy, "just a reminder to decipher the _whole_ array before activating it." 

Roy let out a tired laugh and lifted one arm to drape over his face. "I'm not sure I have the correct resources to translate it." 

Edward let out a disbelieving gasp so obviously false, Roy couldn't help but look over at him. His face was flushed still, a fine beading of sweat catching the light from the overhead and making his skin gleam the same way his eyes were; it was probably the most gorgeous sight he'd ever seen. "Teen-me is utterly disbelieving that you don't have a collection of sex alchemy books." 

"Contrary to the belief of your younger self," Roy managed, though the words sounded a bit distant, like he wasn't really saying them, "I am not, in fact, a perv–"

Roy couldn't have said what had happened first: Him shutting himself up because Edward was _right there_ , or Edward kissing him. 

Not that it really mattered, because the end result was the same: Edward's mouth on his, pressing hard and maybe a little desperate, and Roy reaching up his left hand to thread ungloved fingers between golden strands that were far too soft to be possible. A very real part of himself wanted to hold Edward there, let them both suffocate on each other's mouths; dying in the truest lovers' embrace that existed. 

But, when Edward pulled back, Roy let him go. He was rewarded by Edward hovering over him, his cheeks still flushed and eyes still gleaming, though not because of the light hitting them. 

Gold eyes slid away for a moment, and Roy tried desperately to collect himself enough to speak, but then Edward's gaze sharpened and met Roy's single eye. "When I was...in that other world," Edward said, and Roy couldn't help but let out a slightly startled noise at the subject, because Edward had always brushed off questions about his time away, "there were – are – copies of people here. Bradley, Al, the Hugheses..." He swallowed and his mouth twisted with something that cut straight to Roy's heart, left him aching for the chance to see his best friend alive again. "But they're always different, always just...copies. Not quite right. And I, near the end, I met your copy." 

Edward took a deep, careful breath, his eyes sliding away and quickly back, like he was having trouble holding Roy's gaze, but was too stubborn to let himself look away for long. "We worked together, for a bit, and I thought... I kept...dreaming of him, like, you know." His eyes skittered away again and didn't come back. "Took me a bit to realise it wasn't _him_ I was dreaming about." 

'It was _you_ ,' he didn't say. Didn't need to, really. 

And Roy knew he had a choice: He could shove Edward away and leave them both utterly alone and miserable for Yule, or he could follow Edward's lead and maybe he wouldn't have to face the longest night with only a bottle of cheap wine as his companion. 

It was the easiest choice of his life. 

His hand was still in Edward's hair, and Roy let it slide down until he was cupping Edward's face, his skin so _warm_. "I wonder," he murmured as gold eyes shyly met his stare again, "if it would have been easier to have another version of you to blame such dreams on. But I didn't." 

Edward's eyes widened and the "Oh," he let out was so strong an exhale, Roy imagined he could feel it down to his bones. He definitely felt the way their mouths knocked together a little too suddenly as Edward dropped into another kiss, his left hand trying to push under Roy's head. 

Roy lifted his head to make it a little easier for Edward's hand, even as he brought his other hand up to cup Edward's face better and push him back a bit. " _Control_ , Fullmetal," he said in as dry a voice as he could manage, despite his heart attempting to beat its way out of his chest so it could do a proper jig in the air above them. 

"Life's too short for control," Edward shot back. 

Roy didn't really have a good argument for that, so he settled for leaning up and catching Edward's mouth in a much less excitable kiss. Edward let him keep it gentle, unexpectedly, easing into it like, maybe, he wasn't as incapable of controlling himself as he liked to pretend. 

"I think," Roy murmured against Edward's lips after putting just enough space between them to speak, "that I have an extra candle somewhere you can have." 

He didn't need to feel the delicate play of muscles to know Edward was smiling, his eyes more than bright enough to get that across. "Are you asking me over for solstice night?" 

Roy thought about beating around the bush a bit more, before settling on just asking, "Would you like to come over tomorrow night and watch the sun rise with me?" 

Edward swallowed, loud enough to be audible, then nodded. "Yeah," he said, and the word sounded a little thick. 

Roy nodded himself, then leant up to kiss Edward again. 

Eventually, though, Edward pulled back and said, "We should probably...leave." 

"Probably," Roy agreed, instead of making a comment about how much more comfortable his bed at home was, though that was certainly tempting. 

Edward sighed and pulled away, which served as sufficient reason to get Roy to sit up and debate getting out of the bed. 

"What're you gonna do about the array?" Edward asked as the bed shifted. 

Roy glanced back to find Edward crouched down in front of the troublesome plant's pot, gingerly picking up the paper with the array on it. "Say it didn't work and blame the delay the the death of the plants," he decided, because no way he was sharing this particular outcome with _anyone_.

Edward's eyes gleamed, his mouth twisting with a smile that promised nothing good. "No practical shows?" 

" _Fullmetal_ ," Roy intoned in his best unimpressed tone, privately torn between amusement at the horrified expression such would cause, and disgust at the idea of having to watch the brass be sodomised by a plant. 

Edward snickered and stood, turning toward the doorway. "You know," he tossed over his shoulder as he reached the doorway, "I _do_ have a name. One my mum gave me, not Bradley." 

Roy winced at that point and hurried after Edward, barely pausing to turn off the lights they'd turned on. When he caught up to Edward in the living room, he took his closer hand – the automail, but Roy refused to let that throw him off – and brought it up to his lips to kiss the back. "I apologise, Edward," he murmured against the steel, catching the gold gaze that had turned toward him. "I've got used to using your title to remind me of the distance between us." 

Edward's smile was a twisted, painful sort of thing. "I know. Me too, Roy." 

"I know," Roy repeated, because he _did_ , expected they'd be dropping plenty of 'Mustang's and 'Fullmetal's – not to mention the dozens of other familiar insults they'd been wielding like shields for years – as they got used to this change in their relationship. 

But Edward's smile was easing into something more _him_ , and Roy's heart was doing that familiar little flip-flop in his chest, and he knew that they – of all the couples in the world – were more than capable of making it through a couple of rough patches.

.


End file.
